Retooling the Dillon 550B Casefeeder for Rifle

[Mike7461]

I haven't bought a 550B casefeeder yet, but think that I may be a good candidate for one. The factors that I think make me a good candidate are as follows: I load about 20K rounds of pistol ammo a year between 45ACP, 9mm, and 38 spec. I also load about 1.5K rounds of rifle ammo per year between 223 and 30-06. I do one caliber at a time in huge batches to minimize retooling the press. I understand that the 550B casefeeder doesn't load rifle ammo so I would appreciate information about how long and what it takes to retool a 550 casefeeder between Rifle and Pistol, and how much slower reloading rifle ammo would be with a partial casefeeder installation for rifle compared to not installing a 550 casefeeder.

In the future I'd like to buy a 650 and use the 550B case feeder on it and put the 550 back to a non casefeeder configuration. Fincially, this would be a good transition for me and that's another major reason I'm considering buying a 550B casefeeder now. After viewing a youtube video it appears that I could go from about 4 seconds per round to 2 seconds per round on pistol ammo using a 550B with Casefeeder, which is about the same speed as a 650. For pistol ammo it seems that I could save about 10 hours of reloading time based on 20K rounds of pistol ammo. The more I type the more I seem to convince myself that it would be worth getting. How says you?

Edited March 29, 2012 by Mike7461

[benos]

I can't tell you an exact time, but the guys at Dillon told me that to remove the 550's Casefeeder so you can load rifle is a royal PITA. But if you will load multi-thousands of rifle rounds at a time, then the removal time might be that big of a deal.

Maybe someone will chime in with the total time it takes to go from a pistol caliber (w/Cassefeeder) to a rifle caliber (w/Casefeeder removed).

be

[Mike7461]

Thanks for the reply Brian. I agree it is going to be a PITA, but hoping it still may be worth it for me. I was thinking even at worse case it will only take no more than 1 hour to fully uninstall the casefeeder, put it back in the box, and go back to the old configuration for rifle...then another hour to unbox it an go back to the casefeeder configuration for pistol. If that is the case (pun intended) that would seem to still put me 8 hours ahead on reloading time savings overall based on loading 20K pistol rounds annually with a casefeeder. I would have to load all my pistol ammo before loading the rifle ammo to realize that 8 hour savings. What I'm hoping to find out is if I could add to that 8 hour reload time savings if I only partially uninstall the case feeder by swinging the cam out of the way. Would partially uninstalling the case feeder have a big speed disadvantage compared to the non case feeder configuration? Do you think I can squeeze another hour and make it 9 hours savings. I know...too much math, but I'm trying to measure the PITA factor.

[98sr20ve]

Horrible plan.

1. The case feed 550 is not really that fast.

2. It's a lot fussier then the 650. That costs more time in transitions from one caliber to the next.

3. 650 case feeder is two speed. So it's not as good for that either.

4. Finally. Swapping the case feeder off the 550 is totally not practical at all. You have to take the entire sub plate off and realign the entire machine. Not something you want to do often.

Bite the bullet. Get a 650.

Edited March 30, 2012 by 98sr20ve

[Mike7461]

98sr20ve- Horrible plan.

1. 98sr20ve- The case feed 550 is not really that fast.

Mike7461 - I'm assuming that you are referring to what I belive my reloading time savings is (8 hours for 20K pistol rounds) and not the motor speed of the casefeeder itself. Even if I increased my reloading time to much more conservative numbers shown on a poll in this forum it still doesn't appear to me that my plan is "Horrible" as you stated.

2. 98sr20ve- It's a lot fussier then the 650. That costs more time in transitions from one caliber to the next.

Mike7461 - I understand that it is fussier because of rifle, but are you also referring to only using the casefeeder conversion for pistol as well? Please elaborate.

3. 98sr20ve- 650 case feeder is two speed. So it's not as good for that either.

Mike7461 - I wasn't aware that there was a motor speed difference on the casefeeder, but I did a search and it appears that it may be easy to get a 2 speed microswitch. What I do not understand is why the 550B casefeeder is 1 speed and the 650 casefeeder is 2 speed. Also, what is the impact if you didn't change to a 2 speed system for the 650. Some elaboration here would be useful.

4. 98sr20ve- Finally. Swapping the case feeder off the 550 is totally not practical at all. You have to take the entire sub plate off and realign the entire machine. Not something you want to do often.

Bite the bullet. Get a 650.

Mike7461 - It may be less a PITA compared to the cost of buying a full blown 650 with casefeeder and conversions for 5 calibers now. With all this talk though about the 550 casefeeder not being useful for the 650 I may just buy a casefeeder for the 550 now for pistol and when I have more money just buy a used 550B for rifle.

Edited March 30, 2012 by Mike7461

[Alvarez Kelly]

EDITED... With all this talk though about the 550 casefeeder not being useful for the 650 I may just buy a casefeeder for the 550 now for pistol and when I have more money just buy a used 550B for rifle.

THAT'S the winning plan. I was going to suggest as much.

[Mike7461]

With some doubts that I was making the right choice based on the several responses above, I went ahead anyway bought the 550 casefeeder and set it all up in about 90 minutes today. Everything works great! I fed and loaded many 9mm rounds with no problems. The alignment is perfect. I think I made the right choice and I belive it will not be all that painful as some have said when I change over to rifle, especially since it I do not reload rifle often. It appears to me that manually loading rifle cases can be fairly easy after you remove the 3 allen screws that connects to the cam assembly bracket used to hold the tube feed, and then move that bracket and tubes out of the way. Any way, that is what I am going to try.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Mike7461

[bwsnyder2005]

I just bought a Dillon 550B case feeder and I am using it for 223 and pistol calipers. I know the dillon website said it can't do rifle, but I got mine too. I am using the 9mm case feeder adapter plate and the 650 case feeder "white plastic" shell adapter for .223. It works pretty good also, just don't go lighting fast. It does work for small rifle. I will try the .308 later, and use the .45 acp shell plate with the .308 plaster shell tube adapter when I try it.

[bclinehand]

Swapping from using the casefeeder to manual feed is as simple as removing the bin holder/cartridge chute from the strongmount (3 bolts),

remove 1 bolt from front right corner of press (enables the cam plate for case feeder to swing out of the way)

remove two small allen screws holding the case feed assembly from under the sub plate ( a bit tricky to get at but a ball end hex key makes it easier)

Install manual case feed plate (those 2 small hex screws)

Install bolt back into corner of press base (leaving cam plate swung to the rear)

and reinstall bin holder/cartridge chute

I can do this in under 10 minutes......and no realignment of subplate required

obviously going back to casefeeder is pretty much the reverse

Edited February 4, 2015 by bclinehand

[bclinehand]

I just bought a Dillon 550B case feeder and I am using it for 223 and pistol calipers. I know the dillon website said it can't do rifle, but I got mine too. I am using the 9mm case feeder adapter plate and the 650 case feeder "white plastic" shell adapter for .223. It works pretty good also, just don't go lighting fast. It does work for small rifle. I will try the .308 later, and use the .45 acp shell plate with the .308 plaster shell tube adapter when I try it.

I plan on using my 550 case feeder for rifle as well........using the 650 shell adapter as you said but with the 650 small rifle disc in the collator.....

[pmt]

The 550 with casefeeder can be easily adapted to load .223

Small rifle plate in the collator

White .223 adapter (or dremel out a green 9mm adapter)

38SuperComp guide in Station #1

Because I didn't want to mess with cam adjustments, I lube/deprime/resize on single stage press, so I only use Station #1 to prime.

Change-over from 9mm to .223 only takes a matter or minutes.

[Corey]

I use my 550 casefeeder for pistol as its designed. When I want to load rifle, I just drop the .223 case into the guide and pull the handle. The pusher that pushes the cases into the shellplate does the same thing with rifle cases and off I go. I dont have to worry about dissembling anything other than a shellplate and toolhead swap.

When I do load .223, I use 2 tool heads. One tool head sizes and trims. Then I usually hand prime my cases. When I go to load, because the cases are primed already, I insert them straight into position 2 on the shellplate and then let them continue around like a normal progressive. Works very well for me.